What are Bitcoin improvement proposals (BIPs), and how do they work?

1. How are Bitcoin improvements implemented?

Being an open-source, decentralized cryptocurrency based on a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus system, Bitcoin has no central authority to decide future core protocol changes. Therefore, its development relies on decisions taken by the community through improvement proposals called Bitcoin improvements proposals (BIPs).

2. What is a Bitcoin improvement proposal?

A BIP is the standard method employed to promote ideas, changes and improvements to the Bitcoin protocol, a formal document to introduce new features or processes to the network.

3. How are Bitcoin improvement proposals (BIPs) created?

BIPs result from informal proposals and ideas usually generated in meetups, forum chats or social media engagement, especially on CryptoTwitter. A BIP should concern a significant change or addition to the Bitcoin protocol. Little changes, bugs or patches do not need to be turned into BIPs; they can simply follow the standard workflow required by each project development.